Charlotte home and Democrat., 1887-06-03
The Right Kind of a Sermon.
A friend in Western county sends US the
following article with request that we publish


A friend in Western county sends US the
following article with request that we publish
| it. 81
BY REV. d. H. FUTILE OF WILMINGTON, N. q.
just at this time our country needs a
religion that will make a man pay his
| debts. Shouting don't settle old notes
and accounts with God nor mau-cash
up We want TO pounce right on fellow
and put him out of the Church il he goes
to ball or theatre or gets on a drunk,
but never say a word to the pious scamp
who never pays his debts Preachers aud
people who do not pay their debts are
doing the Church more harm than dan
GERS and drunkards-there are more OF
| them in the Church. Reader, am | get
ting close to you? Then lay down the
paper and go and pay up and you can
read on with ease. And don't you stop
playing because the "statute Of limita-
I tions" excuses the open account you made
| for your bread and meat--God's law
| knows no such statute. You pay it in
cash or God will make you pay it in fire
and birthstone. God knows no such ex-
cuse from paying as Homestead exemp-
| tion." You raise that excuse to keep
from paying your debts and you can stop
singing "When / can read my titles clear
to mansions in the skies"-You've got
none up there. You may say, would
pay if could. How hard have you tried?
II dying at this moment could you say,
I've done all in my power. Have tried to
save little each week or month for your
debts. Are you spending no money for
things to eat and wear that you could do
without? How much do you spend per
year for cigars and tobacco? Make the
calculation. Put that amount to your
debts. Do you eat dainties and luxuries?
Palmer diet would keep you from making
doctors bills that you won't pay, and
leave you money to bring up back ac-
counts. Do you strut about with au um-
brella over your head while your creditor
walks in the broiling sun? Don't you cut
shines in hired turn-oute (may be they are
not paid tory when you might walk and
use the money to make your creditors
smile? A palmer suit of clothes would be
more becoming till you can pay for those
| worn out last season. When expenses not
necessary for the feeding and clothing of
the body are cut off and applied to the
payment OF debts, then you grow ir favor
with God, aud not till then does God ex-
cuse you.
Repentance on this point must be of
that Cody sort that needeth not to be
| repented Of Reader, weIe you sorry
that you had not paid your debts when
| you made profession of religion? If you
were not that is just why you have not
got debt paying religion. True repent
ance has a retroactive as well as pro-
spective effect on the life of the believer
He will as far as possible make good his
past wrongs. Many new converts sing,
"Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe"
such thing; Jesus did not pay it all, nei-
ther do you owe all to him. If the week
before you were converted you owed your
neighbor ten dollars, and was able to pay
it you owe that neighbor ten dollars yet;
don't pay that debt it will meet you at
judgment as sure as you are sinner. It
is mean in you to expect Jesus to pay
debts for you that you can pay yourself.
II you have a Christian heart in you,
think how much Jesus paid for you that
you never could have met at Gods bar of
irfexibe justice. Some people think that
the cleansing stream of Jesus blood " ash
ed Sinai away aud deluged the law-no
such Thing. Jesus came not to destroy,
but to fulfill, aud give grace that we
through him might fulfill. Jesus every
| where enforces the commandments as the
| rule of life.
At the close of our great revival at
Fifth Street Church two years ago a num-
Der of young men came to me TO know if
they ought to 60 and pay bills that they
had made at bar-rooms for whiskey, etc.
told them to "owe no man anything"
''let not your good be evil spoken OFF,
| give the devil his Dues All of those
young men, save one or two, went aud
paid up those "bad debts" and have made
no more. Those who could not see that
it was their duty to pay those debts have
returned to their old paths and their Sc
cond state is wore than the first.
| Then let the whole Church pray for a
revival of debt paying religion. In every
revival let prayer be made that the new
converts may haYe grace to pay up sold
debts" and not to contract new ones
without a good probability of paying
them. Let the ministry enforce this duty
publicly and privately with discretion)
and great good can be accomplished. If
preachers would look after this matter Of
debt paying among their congregations
| their own debts might be more promptly
| paid-chickens come home to roost. Both
preachers and people need to be more care
full. prayerful and payful along this line.
The greatest necessity of the present time
is confidence among the people. Let the
Church command and demand her mem
bership to live up to their promises and
contracts and soon the preseut financial
darkness will give way to a brighter morn
of prosperity in all business circles. Keep
the Amen corners and front seats clear of
members who can and won't pay their
debts lthe pulpit too1 and the word
preached will REACH sinners May God
give increase to these words which are
written for the promotion of his kingdom
in the practical dealings OF men with men.
W The yellow fever has been intro
duced into the United States, at Key
West, Florida. 1t has advanced into this
country extraordinarily early in the sea-
| SoD r. ia sai1 that IL camo .lonn with